Manufacture of collars for personal wear



Nov. 7, 1944. H. CORTEEN 2,362,248

' MANUFACTURE OF COLLARS FOR PERSONAL WEAR Filed Nov. 26, .1938 2Sheets-Sheet l Inventor Attorney 0 Nov. 7, 1944.

H. CORTEEN MANUFACTURE OF COLLARS FOR PERSONAL WEAR Filed Nov. Y 26,1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IA ttorney Patented Nov. 7, 1944 MANUFACTURE OFCOLLARS FOR PERSONALWEAR Harry Corteen, Manchester, England, assignor toTootal Broadhurst Lee Company Limited, Manchester, England, a Britishcompany Application November 26, 1'938,'Serial No. 242,547

In Great Britain November 29, 1.937

14 Claims.

This invention relates to the manufacture of collars for personal wear.Collars are out from a sheet or web of material which is flat, and yetin wear they must, in order to fit agreeably on the wearer, be curvedaround the neck.

Various means'have been proposed with this aim in view, such forinstance as weavin the fabric from which the collars are cut as acurved.

folds respective to one another. The same effect v will be present wherethe Whole of one fold of a collar is shrunk relatively to the otherfold;

By the present invention it is possible to cut collars with a straighttemplate from a sheet or.

Web of almost any weave, and yet obtain a collar with a conicalneckband, curved in the plane of the collar without puckering of theouter fold, and the curvature of which will be permanent orsubstantially so in spite of repeated laundering.

According to this invention collars or the neckbands of collars are cutstraight or without the requisite curve from a flat web of material inwhich the warp threads are paralleLwhereupon the length of the majorpart of the collar fabric is varied as compared with a narrow areaadjacent to the loweredge alone of the neckband or inner fold of thecollar, for example by applying to the lower part of the neckband acontracting force to produce a contraction of the overall length of theneckband along the line of application greater than the contraction dueto shrink-' age of the cloth in the rest of the collar, the finishedcollar remaining substantially in that curvature even after repeatedwashings;

One preferred method of applying a permanent contraction to thislocalized area of the collar is a Brestretched, (i. .e. possessingpotential shrinkageythreads or films may be used instead of, or inconjunction with, pre-stretched woven tape.

, Such pre-stretched tapes, threads or films may be applied to thelocalized area to be shrunk by means other than sewing, or they may beincorported within the localized area during the initial Weavingoperation; or th y may be incorporated in the seams or between the pliesin the make up of all ordinary types of collars for example soft, fused(that is to say where threads or a sheet of plastic material fusible byheat is incorporated with the collar material so that this may bestiffened) or starched whether one piece, or 2 piece, single ply, 2 plyor multiply. It is also possible to use threads or tapes made of wool,or creped yarns which have not been prestretched but which possess atendency to contract when washed.

In another method, one or more rows of sewing machine stitches areapplied to this area of the neckband under a higher tension or with acoarser needle or with a greater number of stitches per inch or bystitching through a greater number of layersthan the stitches in themain or centre seam or a number of these methods used together.

Such seams will shrink when the collar is. first wetted giving thedesired curve to the neckband.

A further alternative method is to apply a chemical shrinking liquor tothis localized area, e. g. a mercerising liquor such as caustic soda ofmercerising strength and the curve produced in this way may be made morepermanent by the addition of non-extensible seams.

By means of any of these methods, it is easy to vary the curvedproduced, by varying the number of seams, stitches, threads or tapesadded to the collar which are capable of shrinking, or by varying theamount of shrinkage of which the seams, stitches, threads or tapes arecapable, for example, by varying the Way in which the seam is sewn orthe extent to which the tape is stretched before setting.

. form of collar as in Figure l.

Figure 5 is a similar view to Figure 1 showing the collar aftertreatment and finishing.

Figure 6 is an end view of the finished collar of Figure 5.

Figure '7 is a plan view of a double collar treated in a modified way.

Figure 8 is a plan View of a double collar treated in another way.

A collar (Figure 1) is cut out from a piece of continuous web(preferably a well shrunk cotton or linen cloth) with the warp threads Iat right angles to the weft and running parallel to the length of thecollar in both outer fold 2 of the double collar and also inner fold orneckband 3.

The collar may be edged with tape 4 which is an ordinary woven tape (asshown in Figure 2) or where a two ply collar is required, the two piecesmay be stitched together as in Figures 3 and 4. The fold line or centreseam of the double collar can be strengthened r demarcated by anordinary woven tape 6 or by rows of stitching i (Figure 3).

Insteadof applying to the lower edge of the neck band of the collar atape similar to the tape t or 6, a specially prepared tape 8 is applied.This tape 8 is one which possesses considerable contracting force whenwetted, i. e. a shrinkage greatly in excess of the natural slightshrinkage of either the fabric 2, 3 or the tapes 4, E. This can beobtained by taking a tape having the warp yarns well crimped in the loomstate, bleaching this and drying without tension; it is then a tapecapable of considerable lengthwise extension. For instance a A widecotton tape of this character capable of 23% extension before breakingin the wet state is wetted and stretched 20% by any convenienttensioning means and then dried while under tension. A tape 6 of thiskind is then attached to the lower edge of the neck-band of the collarby stitching it under normal tension.

On wetting the whole collar or the part to which the tape is attached ormore usually on washing and dressing in finishing, the tape 8 willcontract and bring the neckband 3, and particularly its lower edge intoa curved shape. This curve is particularly resistant against laundryprocesses and a considerable force is required to remove the curve. Ifany of this curve is removed by excessive stretching of the lower edgeof the neckband this stretching reinstates the potential laundryshrinkage in the tape 8 so that the curve is reproduced when the collaris again wetted.

An alternative method is to set a stretched tape with a material such asresin, attachit to the collar fabric, and then release the set of thetape to allow it to contract by removing the resin or the A method forincorporating the tape 8 within the plies of a three ply collar is shownin Figure 4, where l3 indicates an interlining whether fusible or not.

The shape assumed by the collar after the wetting treatment is shown inFigures and 6.

In an alternative method shown in Figure '7, a piece of ordinary tapecan be sewn at 6 and 9 with for instance a 3 cord 120s sewing cottontwelve to fourteen stitches to the linear inch using a No. 11 Simanconeedle in a Singer 95 K machine with less thread tension than usual,whilst along the bottom of the neckband at [0 a. seam is sewn with, forinstance, a six cord 24s .cottontwenty-four to twenty-six stitches tothe inch using a Wilcox & Gibbs No. 6 needle in an Adler needle-feedmachine with excess tension on both shuttle and needle threads.Buttonholing may be done at this stage. This seam may be sewn on thecollar material, or may be sewn On an ordinary tape'fixed to theneckband or may be one or more parallel lines of stitching as shown.

In the dressing and washing of the collar the highly tensioned closelystitched seam will contract very considerably drawing up the fabric atthe bottom of the neckband portion of the collar to the desired curve.

Another method is shown applied by way of example, in Figure 8 where amercerising liquor is applied to a localised area along the lower edgeof the neckband Hi, the remainder of the collar being shielded from theinfluence of the said liquor. This mercerising of this localised area ofthe fabric will result in a differential shrinkage in the same manner asthe methods described above.

An important advantage of this invention is that if the fabric includesa stripe pattern, this Will still in the finished collar run parallel tothe curve of the fold along the centre seam as defined by the tape 6 orstitching 1 without losing the advantage of a space between the foldsfor the tie. It is also evident that the stitching i or seaming of thetape 6 and of tape 8 or other work upon these seams of the collar, forexample fixing a special ridge or carrying out other processes to makethe collar fold over easily is simple to carry out when these parts arestraight lines as compared with the making of seams or fold lines on thecurve as is necessary when for instance, the fabric is woven on thecurve or cut curved. Where reference is made to a collar blank thisrelates to the cut piece of collar material in any stage of themanufacture of the collar.

I declare that what I claim is:

1. A method of manufacturing collars consisting in cutting a collarblank from a fiat web of material in which the warp threads are straightand are parallel to one another, and subsequently imparting a permanentlongitudinal contraction solely over a narrow area. situated along thetotal length of one longitudinal edge alone of the blank which will formthe lower edge of the neckband.

2'. A double collar in which the whole of the outer fold and the majorpart of the inner fold are of similar material in which the warp threadsare straight and are parallel to one another whilst the lower part ofthe neckband alone is of material which has been shrunk so that the edgeof this part assumes a curvature.

3. A collar having a tape capable, on wetting of the collar, of greatercontraction in length than the material of the collar, secured to andparallel with the lower edge of neckband alone of the collar.

4. A collar having a tape which has been wetted, stretched and dried,while stretched, attached to the lower edge of the neckband alone.

5. A collar having an area adjacent the lower edge of the neckbandalone, treated with a chemical shrinking agent.

6. A method of manufacturing collars including the step of securing tothat part alone of the fabric which will form the lower edge of theneckband, threads set whilst tensioned, and then releasing the settingafter the cutting of the collar blank.

7. A method of manufacturing collars includ mg the step of securing tothat part alone of the fabric which will form the lower edge of theneckband, a woven tape set whilst tensioned, and then releasing thesetting after the cutting of the collar blank.

8. A method of manufacturing collars consisting in cutting a collarblank from a web of material, setting a tensioned tape to prevent itscontraction, securing said set tape to the whole of th lowerlongitudinal edge of the neckband of I the collar blank between the studholes, and then releasing the setting of the tape.

9. A method of manufacturing collars consisting in cutting a collarblank from a web of material, stretching a length of tape, setting saidlength of tape in the stretched condition, securing said set tape alongthe lower longitudinal edge of the neckband of the cut collar blankbetween the stud holes substantially parallel with the fold line andthen releasing the setting of said tape.

10. A method of manufacturing collars consisting of cutting a collarblank from a web of material, weaving a length of tape, moistening saidtape, stretching said tape whilst so moistened, drying said tape whilststretched in order to set it, securing said set tape along the lowerlongitudinal edge of the neckband of the collar 11. A method ofmanufacturing collars, consisting in cutting a collar blank from a webof blank between the stud holes and then releasing material, weaving alength of tape under tension,

setting said length of tape whilst in tension, se- I curing said settapealong the lower longitudinal edge of the neckband of the collar blankbetween the stud holes alone, and then releasing the setting of thetape.

12. A method of manufacturing collars con sisting in cutting a collarblankfrom a web of material, applying longitudinal rows of stitchesunder high tension parallel with and along that part of the lower edgeof the neckband of the cut collar blank which lies between the studholes and then wetting the blank.

13. A method of manufacturing collars consisting in cutting a collarblank from a web of material, applying to that part of the lower edge ofthe neckband alone, which lies between the stud holes, and parallel withthat edge, rows of densely associated stitches capableof contraction onwetting,- and then wetting the blank.

14. A collar having a narrow area on the lower edge of the neckbandalone, which lies between the stud holes, artificially contracted ascompared with the remainder of the neckband, the lower edge of theneckband being curved.

HARRY CORTEEN.

